Egypt raises electricity prices

CAIRO (AA) – Egypt raised prices of electricity by an average of 26 percent on Tuesday, as part of efforts to overhaul the country’s economy.

The new hikes will be effective as of the new Fiscal Year, which starts in July, Electricity Minister Mohamed Shaker told a press conference in Cairo.

Earlier this month, Egyptian authorities hiked prices of piped drinking water by up to 45 percent.

Egyptian authorities have slashed subsidies in recent years as part of a $12 billion IMF loan to overhaul the country’s economy, which has been hard-hit by political unrest that followed the ouster of autocrat Hosni Mubarak in a popular uprising in 2011.

Prices have sharply skyrocketed as a result of the measure, hard-hitting poor and middle-class people in the Arab country.